HOUSEHOLD RECIPES

MISCELLANEOUS.

Axle Grease.—1. Water, 1 gallon; soda, 1/3 pound; palm oil, 10 pounds. Mix by heat, and stir till nearly cold.

2. Water, rape oil, of each 1 gallon; soda, 1/3 pound; palm oil, 1/4 pound.

3. Water, 1 gallon; tallow, 3 pounds; palm oil, 6 pounds; soda, 1/2 pound. Heat to 210 deg. Fahrenheit and stir until cool.

4. Tallow, 8 pounds; palm oil, 10 pounds; plumbago, 1 pound. Makes a good lubricator for wagon axles.

How to Shell Beans Easy.—Pour upon the pods a quantity of scalding water, and the beans will slip very easily from the pod. By pouring scalding water on apples the skin may be easily slipped off, and much labor saved.

How to Clean Bed-Ticks.—Apply Poland starch, by rubbing it on thick with a cloth. Place it in the sun. When dry, rub it if necessary. The soiled part will be clean as new.

How to Wash Carpets.—Shake and beat it well; lay it upon the floor and tack it firmly; then with a clean flannel wash it over with a quart of bullock's gall mixed with three quarts of soft, cold water, and rub it off with a clean flannel or house-cloth. Any particular dirty spot should be rubbed with pure gall.

How to Clean Carpets.—Before proceeding to sweep a carpet a few handfuls of waste tea-leaves should be sprinkled over it. A stiff hair broom or brush should be employed, unless the carpet is very dirty, when a whisk or carpet-broom should be used, first followed by another made of hair, to take off the loose dust. The frequent use of a stiff carpet-broom soon wears off the beauty of the best carpet. An ordinary clothes brush is best adapted for superior carpets. When carpets are very dirty they should be cleaned by shaking and beating.

Beat it well with a stick in the usual manner until all the dust is removed, then take out the stains, if any, with lemon or sorrel-juice. When thoroughly dry rub it all over with the crumb of a hot wheaten loaf, and if the weather is very fine, let hang out in the open air for a night or two. This treatment will revive the colors, and make the carpet appear equal to new.

How to Remove Spots on Carpets.—A few drops of carbonate of ammonia, and a small quantity of warm rain water, will prove a safe and easy antacid, etc., and will change, if carefully applied, discolored spots upon carpets, and indeed, all spots, whether produced by acids or alkalies. If one has the misfortune to have a carpet injured by whitewash, this will immediately restore it.

How to Remove Ink Spots on Carpets.—As soon as the ink has been spilled, take up as much as you can with a sponge, and then pour on cold water repeatedly, still taking up the liquid; next rub the place with a little wet oxalic acid or salt of sorrel, and wash it off immediately with cold water, and then rub on some hartshorn.

Cleaning and Scouring of Cloth.—The common method of cleaning cloth is by beating and brushing, unless when very dirty, when it undergoes the operation of scouring. This is best done on the small scale, as for articles of wearing apparel, etc., by dissolving a little curd soap in water, and after mixing it with a little ox-gall, to touch over all the spots of grease, dirt, etc., with it, and to rub them well with a stiff brush, until they are removed, after which the article may be well rubbed all over with a brush or sponge dipped into some warm water, to which the previous mixture and a little more ox-gall has been added. When this has been properly done, it only remains to thoroughly rinse the article in clean water until the latter passes off uncolored, when it must be hung up to dry. For dark, colored cloths the common practice is to add some Fuller's-earth to the mixture of soap and gall. When nearly dry the nap should be laid right and the article carefully pressed, after which a brush, moistened with a drop or two of olive oil, is passed several times over it, which will give it a superior finish.

Cloth may also be cleaned in the dry way, as follows: First remove the spots, as above, and when the parts have dried, strew clean, damp sand over it, and beat it in with a brush, after which brush the article with a hard brush when the sand will readily come out, and bring the dirt with it. Black cloth which is very rusty should receive a coat of reviver after drying, and be hung up until the next day, when it may be pressed and finished off as before. Scarlet cloth requires considerable caution. After being thoroughly rinsed, it should be repeatedly passed through cold spring water, to which a tablespoonful or two of solution of tin has been added. If much faded, it should be dipped in a scarlet dye-bath. Buff cloth is generally cleansed by covering it with a paste made with pipe-clay and water, which, when dry,-is rubbed and brushed off.

Renovation of Cloth.—The article undergoes the process of scouring before described, and, after being well rinsed and drained, it is put on a board, and the thread-bare parts rubbed with a half-worn hatter's card, filled with flocks, or with a teazle or a prickly thistle, until a nap is raised. It is next hung up to dry, the nap laid the right way with a hard brush, and finished as before. When the cloth is much faded, it is usual to give it a dip, as it is called, or to pass it through a dye-bath, to freshen up the color.

How to Revive the Color of Black Cloth.—If a coat, clean it well, then boil from two to four ounces of logwood in your copper, or boiler, for half an hour; dip your coat in warm water, and squeeze it as dry as you can, then put it into the copper and boil it for half an hour. Take it out, and add a piece of green copperas, about the size of a horse-bean; boil it another half hour, then draw it, and hang it in the air for an hour or two; take it down; rinse it in two or three cold waters; dry it, and let it be brushed with a soft brush, over which a drop or two of the oil of olives has been rubbed, then stroke your coat regularly over.

How to Restore Crape.—Skimmed milk and water, with a little bit of glue in it, made scalding hot, is excellent to restore rusty Italian crape. If clapped and pulled dry like muslin, it will look as good as new; or, brush the veil till all the dust is removed, then fold it lengthwise, and roll it smoothly and tightly on a roller. Steam it till it is thoroughly dampened, and dry on the roller.

How to Cleanse Feather Beds.—When feather beds become soiled and heavy they may be made clean and light by being treated in the following manner: Rub them over with a stiff brush, dipped in hot soap-suds. When clean lay them on a shed, or any other clean place where the rain will fall on them. When thoroughly soaked let them dry in a hot sun for six or seven successive days, shaking them up well and turning them over each day. They should be covered over with a thick cloth during the night; if exposed to the night air they will become damp and mildew. This way of washing the bed-ticking and feathers makes them very fresh and light, and is much easier than the old-fashioned way of emptying the beds and washing the feathers separately, while it answers quite as well. Care must be taken to dry the bed perfectly before sleeping on it. Hair mattresses that have become hard and dirty can be made nearly as good as new by ripping them, washing the ticking, and picking the hair free from bunches and keeping it in a dry, airy place several days. Whenever the ticking gets dry fill it lightly with the hair, and tack it together.

How to Cut Up and Cure Pork.—Have the hog laid on his back on a stout, clean bench; cut off the head close to the base. If the hog is large, there will come off a considerable collar, between head and shoulders, which, pickled or dried, is useful for cooking with vegetables. Separate the jowl from the face at the natural joint; open the skull lengthwise and take out the brains, esteemed a luxury. Then with a sharp knife remove the back-bone the whole length, then the long strip of fat underlying it, leaving about one inch of fat covering the spinal column.

The leaf lard, if not before taken out for the housewife's convenience, is removed, as is also the tenderloin—a fishy-shaped piece of flesh—often used for sausage, but which makes delicious steak. The middling or sides are now cut out, leaving the shoulders square-shaped and the hams pointed, or they may be rounded to your taste. The spare-ribs are usually wholly removed from the sides, with but little meat adhering. It is the sides of small, young hogs cured as hams that bear the name of breakfast bacon, The sausage meat comes chiefly in strips from the backbone, part of which may also be used as steak. The lean trimmings from about the joints are used for sausage, the fat scraps rendered up with the backbone lard.

The thick part of the backbone that lies between the shoulders, called griskin or chine, is separated from the tapering, bony part, called backbone by way of distinction, and used as flesh. The chines are smoked with jowls, and used in late winter or spring.

When your meat is to be pickled it should be dusted lightly with saltpetre sprinkled with salt, and allowed to drain twenty-four hours; then plunge it into pickle, and keep under with a weight. It is good policy to pickle a portion of the sides. They, after soaking, are sweeter to cook with vegetables, and the grease fried from them is much more useful than that of smoked meat.

If your meat is to be dry salted, allow one teaspoonful of pulverized saltpetre to one gallon of salt, and keep the mixture warm beside you. Put on a hog's ear as a mitten, and rub each piece of meat thoroughly. Then pack skin side down, ham upon ham, side upon side, strewing on salt abundantly. It is best to put large and small pieces in different boxes for the convenience of getting at them to hang up at the different times they will come into readiness. The weather has so much to do with the time that meat requires to take salt that no particular time can be specified for leaving it in.

The best test is to try a medium-sized ham; if salt enough, all similar and smaller pieces are surely ready, and it is well to remember that the saltness increases in drying. Ribs and steaks should be kept in a cold, dark place, without salting, until ready for use. If you have many, or the weather is warm, they keep better in pickle than dry salt. Many persons turn and rub their meat frequently. We have never practiced this, and have never lost any.

When the meat is ready for smoking, dip the hocks of the joints in ground black pepper and dust the raw surface thickly with it. Sacks, after this treatment, may be used for double security, and I think bacon high and dry is sweeter than packed in any substance. For sugar-cured hams we append the best recipe we have ever used, though troublesome.

English Recipe for Sugar-Curing Hams.—So soon as the meat comes from the butcher's hand rub it thoroughly with the salt. Repeat this four days, keeping the meat where it can drain. The fourth day rub it with saltpetre and a handful of common salt, allowing one pound of saltpetre to seventy pounds of meat. Now mix one pound of brown sugar and one of molasses, rub over the ham every day for a fortnight, and then smoke with hickory chips or cobs. Hams should be hung highest in meat-houses, because there they are less liable to the attacks of insects, for insects do not so much infest high places—unlike human pests.

Pickle.—Make eight gallons of brine strong enough to float an egg; add two pounds of brown sugar or a quart of molasses, and four ounces of saltpetre; boil and skim clean, and pour cold on your meat. Meat intended for smoking should remain in pickle about four weeks. This pickle can be boiled over, and with a fresh cup of sugar and salt used all summer. Some persons use as much soda as saltpetre. It will correct acidity, but we think impairs the meat.

Washing Preparation.—Take a 1/4 of a pound of soap, a 1/4 of a pound of soda, and a 1/4 of a pound of quicklime. Cut up the soup and dissolve it in 1 quart of boiling water; pour 1 quart of boiling water over the soda, and 3 quarts of boiling water upon the quicklime. The lime must be quick and fresh; if it is good it will bubble up on pouring the hot water upon it. Each must be prepared in separate vessels. The lime must settle so as to leave the water on the top perfectly clear; then strain it carefully (not disturbing the settlings) into the washboiler with the soda and soap; let it scald long enough to dissolve the soap, then add 6 gallons of soap water. The clothes must be put to soak over night, after rubbing soap upon the dirtiest parts of them. After having the above in readiness, wring out the clothes which have been put in soak, put them on to boil, and let each lot boil half an hour; the same water will answer for the whole washing. After boiling each lot half an hour drain them from the boiling water put them in a tub and pour upon them two or three pailsful of clear, hot water; after this they will want very little rubbing; then rinse through two waters, blueing the last. When dried they will be a beautiful white. After washing the cleanest part of the white clothes, take two pails of the suds in which they have been washed, put it over the fire and scald, and this will wash all the flannels and colored clothes without any extra soap. The white flannels, after being well washed in the suds, will require to be scalded by turning on a teakettle of boiling water.